Porsche overtakes Volkswagen as Europe's most valuable carmaker

Porsche took pole position as Europe's most valuable automaker on Thursday, overtaking former parent Volkswagen VLKAF as the price of the sportscar maker's newly listed shares went up.

Porsche's share price fell below its listing price on Monday to 81 euros, but rose to 93 euros $91.95 on Thursday morning, bringing the sportscar brand's market value above Volkswagen's 77.7 billion euros. Mercedes-Benz comes in third place among European carmakers, followed by BMW BMWYY and Stellantis.

Porsche's share price regained momentum after investment banks involved in its flotation purchased almost 3.8 million shares for 312.8 million euros $308 million as part of the greenshoe option designed to support the listing.

Inflation data from Europe and the United States, recent worries over energy supply in Europe and the escalation of the war in Ukraine last Thursday made small-scale stabilization measures necessary, a spokesman for Volkswagen said.

The shares purchased between Sept 29 and Oct 4 represented around 11% of the total trading volume since the listing, consisting of around 34 million shares, the spokesperson said.

In the four weeks after the offering, up to 14.85 million shares worth 1.2 billion euros are available via the greenshoe option.

The shares of Bank of America were acquired between 81 and 82.50 euros, compared to the original issue price of 82.50, it said in a statement on Wednesday.